Los Angeles — Dhar Mann Unveils $100M 'Creator City' Studio Plan

YouTube personality Dhar Mann announced plans for a four-acre Los Angeles production hub called "Creator City," pledging it will generate $100 million in creator brand deals, according to the New York Post. Mann made the announcement at Advertising Week New York, where he holds the title of Chief Creator Officer.

What is Creator City?

Mann describes Creator City as a compound built for the digital creator economy: a physical space where influencers, tech companies and advertisers can work under one roof to produce vertical-video content, the Post reported. The site is set to include five soundstages.

Mann pitched the project as a hub where brand dollars and creator talent converge, framing it as infrastructure built specifically for short-form, vertical video rather than traditional film and television production.

How big is the project and when does it open?

The compound covers four acres and is reportedly slated to open during Super Bowl weekend in February 2027, per the Post. The $100 million figure Mann cited refers to brand deals the project is expected to generate, not a stated construction or operating budget. The Post's report did not specify a separate development cost for the campus.

Creator City by the numbers

• Size: four acres
• Soundstages: five
• Projected brand-deal value: $100 million
• Target opening: Super Bowl weekend, February 2027

Why does the timing look awkward for Hollywood?

The announcement lands as existing Los Angeles production facilities struggle with vacancy. The Post reported that once-busy Hollywood soundstages are sitting empty, and the city has "no shortage of underused production facilities." Mann's pitch for new, purpose-built stages comes as the traditional studio system in the same city works through excess capacity.

The Post did not cite specific vacancy percentages or occupancy figures for existing LA soundstages in its report, so the scale of that underuse relative to Creator City's footprint is not directly comparable from the available reporting.

Who is Dhar Mann and why does his pitch carry weight?

Mann is described by the Post as a "brash internet personality" and YouTube megastar who holds the title of Chief Creator Officer. He has appeared at industry events including the Cannes Lions festival, where he spoke on a panel tied to studio production for high-view-count content, according to a photo caption included in the Post's report dated June 22, 2026.

His pitch treats the creator economy as a distinct production category from film and television, one that Mann argues needs its own dedicated stages rather than relying on the traditional Hollywood studio system currently sitting with idle capacity.

What happens next?

No additional financing details, construction permits, or signed brand partners were disclosed in the Post's report. The February 2027 target date, tied to Super Bowl weekend, gives the project roughly four months from the announcement to a stated opening window. Whether that timeline holds, and which advertisers or platforms commit to the $100 million in brand deals Mann projected, were not addressed in the available source material.

The contrast between a new creator-focused campus and underused traditional soundstages sets up a test of whether Los Angeles production demand has shifted toward short-form digital content, or whether the city's capacity problem extends across formats regardless of who builds the stage.

Creators and marketers tracking the project's progress can follow further detail as it's reported by the New York Post, which first broke the announcement from Advertising Week New York.

Has Mann built production ventures before?

The Post's report centers its description of Mann around his current role as Chief Creator Officer and his history of high-profile industry appearances, including the Cannes Lions festival session titled "Greenlight Your Brand: Step Inside a Billion-View Studio," held June 22, 2026, according to a photo caption in the Post's story. That session title points to a production operation built around high-view-count digital content, consistent with the vertical-video focus Mann describes for Creator City. The Post's report does not detail a prior studio-construction track record for Mann beyond that appearance and his YouTube career.

What hasn't been confirmed yet?

Several basic project details remain outside what the Post's report covers. There is no confirmed construction budget separate from the $100 million brand-deal projection, no named site address within Los Angeles, no listed general contractor or architect, and no named advertisers or platforms committed to the project. The report also does not specify whether Creator City will be built on an existing lot, a converted facility, or new construction, a distinction that would affect both cost and the February 2027 timeline.

That gap matters because the four-month runway from the Advertising Week New York announcement to a stated Super Bowl weekend opening is short for a five-soundstage compound, particularly if construction has not already begun. The Post's report does not say whether groundbreaking has occurred.

AlterEgo — A keyboard for character voices. Five free persona rewrites a day.